As an increasing amount of information is being transmitted and stored electronically, and as the number of transactions performed electronically through networks increases, there is an ever increasing need to protect sensitive information in an electronic environment. This includes not only securing the storing and transmitting of information, but also securing access to the information. A common approach is to encrypt information using an encryption algorithm or cipher to encode information such that the information can only be decrypted or otherwise interpreted using a cryptographic key.
Digital certificates are often used to deliver public key values to systems. These certificates and keys can be vulnerable to attacks and can become compromised. Therefore, it is desirable to reduce the security risks associated with updating digital certificates and cryptographic keys.